Fertility Treatments

more bad news! BLAH!

MI79 wrote:

Hysteroscopy showed scar tissue. UGGHHHH! so FET will be delayed even more.

Need to go in for a second hysteroscopy to remove the tissue... then will have a balloon catheter inside for a few days, then 1 month of estrogen therapy. Maybe FET is July or August. So I'm freaking out about the balloon catheter. Any ladies have it and be honest-- how horrible was it? I rather know and be prepared.

All these surgeries are out of pocket. Never thought I'd have to shell out thousands more dollars in addition to paying for my IVF cycles and meds. Trying not be mad at the world...but needless to say I'm a grump right now...that's putting it lightly. Any feedback appreciated. Thanks Ladies!

This condition is called Asherman's Syndrome. I was diagnosed with it in 2009. First and foremost, you should not be paying for this out of pocket. Asherman's is a condition unrelated to fertility treatments. Surgery for it should be covered by your insurance if your dr codes it correctly. It's no different than having a surgery for endo, uterine polyps, etc.

On to the surgery. You asked for honesty so here it goes! I had both a laparoscopy and hysteroscopy in late 2008 for stage 4 endo. The pain for that surgery was a cake walk compared to the pain for the balloon. I woke up in excruciating pain after surgery and was maxed out on pain meds. My RE deflated the balloon just a tad and I got a very tiny bit of relief. The next few days were hell though even with me staying on top of my meds. I was in so much pain that I had my RE take my balloon out 2 days early. I had minimal scar tissue and didn't need estrogen therapy but did have to wait 2 months before we could ttc again. Good luck moving forward!

E

ErinTN

I'm so sorry this is happening. It must be disappointing to be delayed again...Can your RE not code this in such a way that your insurance will cover it? I have zero coverage for fertility treatments; however, both hysteroscopies I've had have been coded for irregular bleeding, so my insurance covered them (well, they fell under my insane deductible).

B

Babypatrick78

I am so sorry MI79! It feels like torture to me way you've been faced with these past few months. I agree with these girls though that you should push for insurance to pay, even if it's by changing the way the codes are submitted. I'm so sorry you are going through this.

Ugh! That really sucks! Especially when time already moves so slow when you're looking forward to starting fertility treatments. I guess now u will have more time to be mentally and physically ready.

M

MI79

@littlesttiger Thanks for sharing your experience. I haven't had much luck finding any testimonials on how the catheter feels. I hope deflating it a little is an option if I wake up in a lot of pain. My surgery is on a Wednesday so I will take that day off but the next day is a big event at work so I think or rather I feel pressure to go in to work the next day... Then I get 3 days off. Oh gosh. Hope I can bear it. After your procedure did you get your bfp? I keep trying to motivate myself and tell myself that all this $hit is getting me closer to our dream.

M

MI79

@ErinTN Thanks Erin. Hope you are doing ok. Are you takin this summer off from all this? My coverage is an HMO (kaiser) so after iui's they dont do anything related to ivf. I've been going to my RE which is a private practice. I can't switch to a PPO plan until open enrollment in October. So that's why even if ER get creative with coding it doesn't make a difference. Thank god for emergency savings.

M

MI79

@Babypatrick78 Hey there babypatrick! Im sure you excited about transfer! I have a good feeling about your cycle! Thanks for your response. I told ERin about my HMO issue in the pp. Bleh. It may be dumb but I don't want to wait for new insurance coverage to kick in at the end of the year so I will just suck it up.

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nadibear

Urgh, I`m so sorry Hun. :(

M

MI79

@Carrie999 Thanks Carrie! It does suck. I can't do the surgery til June. So if everything goes perfectly ( which I doubt, especially since I'm super pessimistic now) it looks like FET in August. I'm mentally ready. Physically if my lady parts can just get their $hit together that would be great. But this is all very mentally draining.

So a "nice" update in all this. Just got an email. My sweetie pie RE will do the surgery for free! He rocks! I just have to pay the hospital room fee. He is such a kind man. He waived our last scan/blood work when we had our loss, he waived our sono and mock transfer last week when we found my polyp. Just a really good guy.

That is awesome! God bless your RE and you. I know how it feels to go through surgery to help you realize your dream. I really wish you the best on your surgery and FET. I think I will be doing my frozen embryo transfer in August also.

M

MI79

@Star87Mila Hopefully I will be joining you in August if all goes perfectly. Thanks for your post star87mila! Good luck with your upcoming cycle.

m

michelebee

your RE sounds like a little slice of heaven. so nice to have good people along with you on the journey.

I am amazed by your REs kindness. How beautiful. I was going to say that I had my regular OB do my lap so that's insurance would cover it. I even had 2 doctor notes and several months of fighting them but it did get covered :)

I've had Asherman's twice with surgery and a balloon. It was really crampy until it came out. Personally, I'm pretty tough and could have never gone back to work with it in place. Mine was in for about 5 days. You won't be able to deflate the balloon during this time. Also it really isn't the balloon that causes the cramping, but the catheter going through your cervix. I really don't understand why your insurance doesn't pay. The surgery isn't really about fertility. As for fertility afterwards...I still had issues because it made my lining so thin even though I had a mild case. Eventually I did have twin girls when I aggressively treated my lining. Good luck.

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